Consumer and industrial winches are typically offered with a clutch mechanism that can be disengaged to allow the winch's drum to be put into a free spool mode, whereby the rope or cable can be pulled off the drum with relative ease. The winch clutch mechanism is then engaged to lock the drum to the gear train and motor during a winching operation. Typically, the clutch mechanism can be manually, pneumatically, or electrically actuated.
The headings provided herein are for convenience only and do not necessarily affect the scope of the embodiments. Further, the drawings have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be expanded or reduced to help improve the understanding of the embodiments. Moreover, while the disclosed technology is amenable to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments have been shown by way of example in the drawings and are described in detail below. The intention, however, is not to unnecessarily limit the embodiments described. On the contrary, the embodiments are intended to cover all suitable modifications, combinations, equivalents, and/or alternatives falling within the scope of this disclosure.